Amplitude‐integrated electroencephalography shows alterations in children born preterm displaying poor literacy precursor skills

Abstract

Aim To assess whether amplitude‐integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) alterations in the newborn period are associated with poor precursor skills of literacy at five years of age in children born preterm. Methods Between October 2007 and September 2011 248 preterm infants were eligible for the study at Innsbruck Medical University Hospital. aEEG was analysed for dominating background activity, calculation of the percentage of continuous activity, the Burdjalov scoring system, the minimum, mean and maximum amplitude. At the age of five years, we evaluated preterm born children by the Bielefelder screening (BISC) to assess for early diagnosis of reading problems and weak spelling and classified them as normal performers (n = 64) or poor performers (n = 20). Completion of testing was not possible for one infant. Results The minimum amplitude was significantly lower in the poor BISC performance group as compared to the normal BISC performance group at postnatal week two. The percentage of continuous background activity was significantly higher in infants with normal BISC performance than in infants with poor BISC performance at postnatal week three. Conclusion Children with poor developed precursor skills of literacy showed alterations in aEEG signals. The aEEG could be useful in further diagnosing preterm infants at risk for developmental complications.

Neonatal quantitative electroencephalography and long‐term outcomes: a systematic review

“…Qualitative EEG research has shown that longer IBIs have strong predictive value for adverse short‐ and long‐term outcomes in infants with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy 10,35,47 and other underlying neuropathologies 48 . Consistent with these findings, the results from this review indicate that those infants with shorter IBIs and lower IBI percentages had better outcomes 36 and that higher minimum and maximum amplitude‐integrated EEG amplitudes, which possibly reflect shorter IBIs, increased burst length, and/or overall higher amplitudes, were also favourable 24,32,35 . These findings reflect that better maturation of the background pattern in the preterm period and around term age in infants with and without encephalopathy or tuberous sclerosis complex, based on conventional, amplitude‐integrated, and quantitative EEG measures, predicts better long‐term outcomes 21,24,25,32,35 .…”

“…Consistent with these findings, the results from this review indicate that those infants with shorter IBIs and lower IBI percentages had better outcomes 36 and that higher minimum and maximum amplitude‐integrated EEG amplitudes, which possibly reflect shorter IBIs, increased burst length, and/or overall higher amplitudes, were also favourable 24,32,35 . These findings reflect that better maturation of the background pattern in the preterm period and around term age in infants with and without encephalopathy or tuberous sclerosis complex, based on conventional, amplitude‐integrated, and quantitative EEG measures, predicts better long‐term outcomes 21,24,25,32,35 . This is supported by the findings of Stevenson et al., who showed that brain maturational delays in infants born extremely preterm in the neonatal phase, as indicated by the predicted age difference between true and predicted PCA derived from a support vector machine model, were related to long‐term adverse outcomes 39 …”

“…24,32,35 These findings reflect that better maturation of the background pattern in the preterm period and around term age in infants with and without encephalopathy or tuberous sclerosis complex, based on conventional, amplitude-integrated, and quantitative EEG measures, predicts better long-term outcomes. 21,24,25,32,35 This is supported by the findings of Stevenson et al, who showed that brain maturational delays in infants born extremely preterm in the neonatal phase, as indicated by the predicted age difference between true and predicted PCA derived from a support vector machine model, were related to long-term adverse outcomes. 39 The results of conventional EEG absolute power analyses were consistent with the findings of amplitudeintegrated EEG amplitude-related measures; in infants born extremely preterm, preterm, and at term, higher absolute power in several frequency bands was related to favourable long-term outcomes, as were higher amplitudeintegrated EEG amplitudes.…”

“…A higher minimum amplitude, based on amplitude‐integrated EEG, in infants born preterm might be related to higher precursor literacy skills 24 . Middel et al.…”

“…A higher minimum amplitude, based on amplitudeintegrated EEG, in infants born preterm might be related to higher precursor literacy skills. 24 • Higher amplitude-integrated EEG amplitudes, more continuous patterns, and higher absolute powers were associated with favourable long-term outcomes.…”